The MintChip: The Canadian Government’s Answer to Bitcoin | Bitcoin Magazine

However, the system gets a lot of things right. MintChip is a massive improvement over the existing bank and credit card-based model of finance, as payment verification is based on Bitcoin’s digital signature model rather than central providers. Bitcoin’s ease of use, lack of significant transaction fees, irreversibility and other cash-like properties are all present. The level of privacy is comparable to Bitcoin since although transactions are stored in the chips the various MintChip devices would be purchasable without ID, and cheap enough for individuals to purchase multiple “wallets” to further secure their privacy. Also, if users are willing to accept unbacked currency, as Bitcoin has shown people are, the system can even theoretically survive without any trusted parties except the chip manufacturer. As for the implementation, the Mint is making the system accessible ...